A growing controversy over a new baseball team name and logo in London, Ont. — a menacing-looking man wearing a Victorian top hat carrying a baseball bat — is gathering international attention.

Columnists at USA Today, broadcasters at NBC Sports and right wing commentator Rush Limbaugh are all weighing in on the logo’s resemblance to Jack the Ripper.

The new baseball team, part of the Frontier League, is to be called the London Rippers. The team’s logo is supposed to depict “Diamond Jack,” a frustrated hockey player who has the ability to “rip” the covers off baseballs and has a mysterious back story.

But many think the logo depicts Jack the Ripper — the unknown serial killer who in the 19th century brutally murdered poor female prostitutes — and is in bad taste, especially since it was unveiled in the middle of a campaign by a local abused women’s centre to raise awareness.

“Why am I laughing,” he asked in his daily broadcast on Thursday. “Look, I admire creativity, and I admire crossing the line. I love offending people when it’s genuinely funny. I just do. Look, people are so wound up, so tightly wound just waiting to be offended. I love to give ‘em what they want. They want to be offended, fine and dandy with me.”

As for the resemblance to Jack the Ripper, Limbaugh said: “How do we know what Jack the Ripper looked like? He was never ID’d, right?”

In USA Today Reid Cherner commented: “When you name your baseball team the Rippers and you’re from London, you might expect some blowback. Even if it’s London, Ontario and you claim there is no connection to Jack the Ripper.”

Springfield, Illinois’s State Journal-Register’s Ryan Mahan wrote: “I love puns. In baseball, to ‘rip’ a ball down the line is a good thing. . . How do you portray a batter ‘ripping’ the ball into the outfield? Rather hard, huh? I don’t know if ‘Jack the Ripper’ was one of the first things they thought of or, but clever minds came up with this and decided to use this as the logo. Kudos.”

And then Mahan chastised those who were critical of the name. “We have this sensitivity button we like to push too often as a society. You can’t say/show/do that because one per cent of the people might find a baseball team whose name parallels a serial killer from the 1800s offensive. How many times can we cry wolf? Enough with the madness.”

And NBC Sports’ Rick Chandler commented that team owner “(David) Martin has succeeded in one respect. The main goal in marketing a new sports franchise is to create a buzz, and the London Rippers have certainly done that.”

However, the mayor of London, Ont., has asked Martin to reconsider and change the name. Women’s groups are suggesting there will be protests in front of the ballpark when the season begins.

Martin told the Toronto Star earlier this week that the team didn’t intend any association with Jack the Ripper. He called the outcry “somewhat silly.”

“We knew it could be taken in different ways,” Martin said. “Everybody has to be a little less sensitive and let our storyline play out.”

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